I didn’t know what time it was when the knock sounded at the door, but it was still dark out. Waking with a jolt, my heart thumped when the knock sounded again, this time louder than the last.
Sliding out of bed, I slipped on my Pikachu slippers and shrugged on my silken kimono before heading out my room and down the hall. I heard Molly approach from behind, and when I peered out of the frosted side window, I sighed at the familiar hooded shadow before opening the door. “Go awa—” The statement died on my lips when I spotted the bundle he was holding.
“You lose somethin’?” Twitch asked sleepily, holding A.J. in his arms.
My heart stopped.
I blinked in confusion, my lips parted, and when I reached out for him, Twitch pulled back.
Before I could think, I hissed, “Give me my son.”
His face darkened, and he cradled our sleeping son in his arms as he spoke low. “I know you’re pissed at me, and I deserve that, so I’m gonna let it fly the way you just threw an accusation at me. I know you’re mad, which is why I’m not gonna mention that my son somehow got out of his room, out of the safety of his fucking house in the middle of the night with two grown-ass women inside who are meant to be keeping him safe. I’m also not gonna mention how he crossed the street in the dark, where he could’ve been hit by a car or snatched up and taken away without a fucking trace.” Shit. He looked furious. I hated that he had a right to be. Without hesitation, he handed me my son and I held him close, shutting my eyes and breathing him in as I stroked his head and rocked him. And Twitch watched me closely. “I know you’re upset, and that’s why I’m not gonna mention any of that shit tonight.” He took a step back, away from me, but his eyes spoke volumes. “But tomorrow, we’re gonna talk.”
He turned and strode back across the street barefoot, wearing nothing but boxers and his hoodie, and my entire being hummed in fright, because there was no getting out of it.
Tomorrow, we would talk.
Dread had me on edge, and I was sure that was the only reason I did what I did that afternoon.
Coming home from work, I looked forward to seeing my little man after the stern talking to I’d given him that morning. Waking as I did the night before was the scariest thing I’d ever experienced in my life. Waking to find my child out of bed, knowing he’d slipped out of the back door and walked around the house to find his father in the middle of the night was a terrifying thought.
All the things that could’ve happened to him played in my mind on repeat, and I was ready to talk. Or so I thought.
So when I came home to an empty house, I started to panic. My feet took me from room to room and found A.J.’s schoolbag by his bed. My heart picked up pace. Molly always let me know if they were going somewhere, and after last night’s scare, I was petrified at the thought of where my son could be.
I reached into my bag and pulled out my cell, dialing Molly’s phone.
My brow lowered when I heard it ringing in the kitchen.
Oh, God.
My panic quadrupled.
Where are they?
My hands shook as I searched the house once more, including the back yard, and came up empty. By the time I was finished, stone-cold dread ate away at me. Taking my keys into my shaking hands, I jogged down the hall and out of the house just as A.J. and Molly exited the house across the street. I don’t know what they were doing or why they were there, but immediately, I fumed.
They spotted me and Molly waved while Twitch kept a watchful eye on me.
My anger rose with every step, and by the time I reached them, I snatched my son’s hand out of Molly’s and held it tightly in mine then got into his father’s uneasy face. “I’m only going to tell you this once, Twitch. You stay away from us. From me. From A.J.” My voice rose. “You stay away.”
My heart was thumping so hard I could barely hear myself over the persistent thud. Without giving him a chance to respond, I all but dragged my son back home, and as he cried, my heart ached.
“No, Mummy. No!” My heart raced, as A.J. shouted, “Daddy, don’t leave again. I want to be with you!” When he screeched, “Daddy,” at the top of his lungs, I could hardly breathe.
I pulled my son into the house, and when the door closed behind us, I turned on Molly. “Where were you? I called and your phone is in the goddamn kitchen. What a shitty, irresponsible thing to do, Molly!”
Molly blinked in shock. I’d never spoken to her like that before. “We were there for five minutes, Lex. A.J. made something for his dad at school and couldn’t wait to take it over.” Her brow furrowed and her voice turned quiet. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”
I spoke over A.J.’s piercing cries. “Well, I do! Jesus, Molly. You scared the crap out of me.” My bravado started to fail. “Do you know how it felt to come home, no note, unable to call you after last night?” My voice cracked. “I was terrified.”
It hit her then, and Molly’s face fell. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think.”
“No, you didn’t,” I stated, walking A.J. into his room. When I knelt in front of him, gripped his upper arms, I spoke softly. “Honey, you can’t do that. You can’t just leave whenever you want. You have to ask Mommy.”
A.J. spoke through the tears. “I want Daddy.”
I closed my eyes, swallowing through the hurt his pained statement caused. “You can’t have Daddy. You have me. I’m your mom, and what I say goes.”
He struggled in my hold, his breath hitching as he cried. “I don’t want you. I want Daddy.”
Fuck.
I burst into tears. “You don’t need him. You have me.”
I didn’t see the blow coming, and it shocked me when it landed.
A short gasp escaped me as my cheek throbbed.
A.J. gritted his teeth, growling in fury, lifted his small hands up over his head, and he brought them down over my face again, as he shrieked, “I don’t want you. You’re stupid!”
Never had I felt the hurt I felt then. Everything Twitch had ever done to me faded to nothing at the act of being struck by my own child.
I wanted to die.
Molly came into the room just as A.J. hit me again. “You’re stupid!” She rushed forward as he smacked me again, screeching, “You’re stupid!”
As Molly reached A.J., he fell into her, sobbing, as I fell backward on my bottom, weeping silently.
Scrambling out of there, I made it into my room, shutting the door behind me before I covered my mouth with my hands and let out a low, keening cry. I slid down the door and sat there a while, wondering how on earth we had gotten here, to this, our lowest point.
Hours later, I sat in bed with the light on, reading the words on the page of the novel but not really taking anything in. From the corner of my eye, I saw him move.
Removing my reading glasses, I put down the novel to look at the little boy peeking in from behind the doorframe.
I spoke quietly. “Honey?”
That was all it took.
He ran into the room, and the second he threw himself at me, wrapping his gangly arms around me almost too tightly, I closed my eyes and held him to me, stroking his hair. A long while passed before he spoke, and when he did, I couldn’t contain myself.
His voice was soft, comforting. “You’re not a stupid, Mummy. You’re a smart mummy.”
Oh, lord, did I cry.
“I’m sorry, Mummy.” My son pulled back and used the same hand that struck me to wipe away my tears, and he consoled me as he fought his own sadness. “I love you.”
“I love you more, baby,” I told him through a sniffle.
A.J. slept with me that night, and as I held him close, breathing in his sweet apple-scented hair, I knew something had to be done.
Yes. Something was very wrong in our normally harmonious home.
And his name was Twitch.
Chapter Fourteen
Twitch